The Minnesota Government Engineers Council is still trying to reach a contract settlement after members rejected the state?s ?final offer? May 28. Executive director Dana Wheeler said union leadership made an informal counteroffer in hopes of negotiating a settlement before resorting to binding arbitration. The 890 licensed engineers and land surveyors in the bargaining unit are forbidden from striking. Their previous contract expired June 30, 2003. Wheeler said 60 percent of voting members rejected the contract, which included a two-year wage freeze and the state?s standard health insurance package of higher premiums, higher co-pays and reduced access. Two other bargaining units that have gone to binding arbitration have not fared well, Wheeler noted. Arbitrators sided with the state and against corrections officers represented by AFSCME Council 6, and the Minnesota Law Enforcement Association, he said.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org